CA PTG Convention

[David Andersen]

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Hey, kids-------

Got back yesterday (Monday AM) at 4:30---driving up the Tejon Pass in the
slow, SLOW lane in a low-power U-Haul truck with my fantastic, HEAVY M&H CC
strapped to the right side of this POS, under-powered dog, which had alread=
y
left me stranded earlier that night with a dead battery in a rest stop righ=
t
in the middle of frickin=B9 nowhere---hey: are we having fun yet?

That said, the convention, for me and especially for my booth-sharing
brother in crime Dale Erwin, was a luminous, triumphant time.  His rebuilt,
new-board 1928 Steinway D, side by side with my old-board Mason & Hamlin CC=
,
were really kind of the buzz of the show, and on Saturday I was witness to
one of the best concerts I have ever heard---on  Dale=B9s D. It was in a
400-seat, sweet little auditorium, and the program was Gershwin, played by =
a
world-class pianist, Richard Glazer, who has dedicated his professional and
personal life to the music of George and Ira Gershwin.

To say that Dale=B9s D was triumphant, shining, beautiful, powerful---it
doesn=B9t quite get it. A concert grand=B9s true power to amaze doesn=B9t come ou=
t
unless the artist is capable, and loving the instrument. It crashes; it
screams; it whispers; it sings. The true power of THIS piano was evident
from the first note of the concert to the last----it was certainly one of
the two or three best instruments I have ever heard in concert in 40 years.
I was completely, and I mean completely blown away.  So was everybody else
in the room; before the last number, the pianist turned to the audience and
said something to the effect that this was a truly great piano, that it
could do anything he asked it to; that it had shown him colors and tonal
shadings he had never heard before; that it almost played itself; that he
was so inspired that he would now play the entire =B3Rhapsody in Blue=B2 suite,
uninterrupted, and =B3give it my best, my all.=B2  Wow. I have never heard
anything like it in my life.
The audience would not stop clapping and yelling.

My friends, there is a true artisan in Modesto, California.  To be able to
make a piano sound and feel this beautiful, not only in the shop, but on th=
e
stage, is the work of a rare, rare artist.  I am humbly grateful to be the
friend, student, peer and collaborator of Dale Erwin.

This was Dale=B9s FIRST attempt at installing a new board in a D, which makes
it all that much more mind-blowing.

In the near future, and for as long as he=B9s working, artists and
appreciators will beat a path to this man=B9s door from all over the world,
begging him to let them put their fingers on his beautiful spawn.
God willing, I=B9ll be there smiling and sticking my head inside the pianos t=
o
feel and hear the beauty.

Gotta go to work; more later.

Dave Stahl, David Ilvedsen, Jurgen Goering, Carl Meyer, Vladan, Terry
Miller, Bob Davis---great to see you pianotech list guys....and Ilvedsen is
actually a good, good player; tell =8Cem about my big beast, Dave....

Best to all....
David Andersen
Malibu, CA

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